The Super Bowl may be weeks away but history has already been made by Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco. When Flacco takes the field in New Orleans to represent the AFC champions, he will become the second quarterback from the University of Delaware to start a Super Bowl, putting the FCS football program in some exclusive company.
Delaware will become the 11th school to have multiple quarterbacks start a Super Bowl. Flacco will be joined by former Blue Hen quarterback Rich Gannon, who led the Oakland Raiders to a Super Bowl appearance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Delaware joins Alabama, Notre Dame, Purdue, UCLA, Stanford, BYU, Maryland, Miami, California and Washington State in this accomplishment. This also makes Delaware the first FCS school to accomplish the feat.
Flacco and offensive lineman Gino Gradkowski, also from Delaware, will be the fourth and fifth players from the school to play in a Super Bowl. In addition to Gannon, Ivory Sully (Los Angeles Rams) played on special teams against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980. Ben Patrick (Arizona Cardinals) caught a touchdown pass against the Steelers in 2009.
Northern Iowa became the first FCS program to have a quarterback start in multiple Super Bowls, with Kurt Warner getting a chance to start in three different championship games between his time with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals.
The first quarterback from an FCS program to start, and win, in a Super Bowl was Grambling's Doug Williams (Washington Redskins) in 1988. Alcorn State's Steve McNair (Tennessee Titans) is the only other FCS quarterback to start in a Super Bowl.
Former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Ken Anderson remains the only quarterback from a Division 3 school to start a Super Bowl. Anderson played his college football at Augustana College in Illinois and started Super Bowl XVI for Cincinnati.
Kevin McGuire is a national college football writer for Examiner.com and the host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast. Follow McGuire on Twitter and nominate him for a Shorty Award. He can be reached at cfbexaminer@gmail.com.
Comments